There is a growing protest over Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to downplay the Philippines international arbitration victory over China regarding the South China Sea. Although many of his policy decisions are problematic, in this case his decision has merit.

Facilitated by under-the-radar low-tech boats, collusion with local corrupt officials, and integration with legal trade and activities, piracy in Southeast Asia remains a challenging problem. Multinational agencies are cooperating to counteract.

Gordon Chang wrote recently in the National Interest that China is “itching for a confrontation” in response to the January 17, 2018 innocent passage of the USS Hopper near Scarborough Shoal. James Holmes argued that China does not really want confrontation.

The US decision to cut its security aid to Pakistan brings nothing new into US-Pakistan bilateral dynamics. The US had already done that previously when it cut the Coalition Support Funds amounting to USD 900 million for the financial years 2015 and 2016.

Two recent publications by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of the Center for International and Security Studies condemn China’s policies and actions in the South China Sea while ignoring the similar transgressions of the others there.

The latest edition of the US Navy Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations is out. It is the first such revision in a decade — but it continues to convey to US Navy commanders controversial and unilateral interpretations of the international law of the sea.

In 2017, the world’s press mostly focused on Donald Trump’s presidency in the US; China’s rise; and a number of global crises. 2017 also witnessed several other major humanitarian crises which, given the scale of the human suffering involved, were underreported by the world’s press.

Homegrown terrorists are hard to identify; thus, it is difficult to prevent these outrages. Some of the terrorists, especially the “lone wolves” and those who radicalized themselves, are not directly involved in foreign military training and even have no co-conspirators.

A recent report in the Long War Journal is critical of Iran and its alleged nuclear deals with global powers. Washington believes that since 1991, Iran has formed loose ties with terrorist organizations. These developments could affect India-US relations.